1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multichannel acoustic signal reproducing apparatus reproducing a DVD (Digital Versatile Dise or the like, and having sound field control means for obtaining surround phonic sound.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is known hitherto a DVD apparatus wherein multichannel acoustic signals are incorporated as a home Dolby sound system to obtain the presence and reality of sound.
FIG. 6A is a conceptual view showing the arrangement of the speakers of a conventional DVD Dolby sound system (5-1 channel system).
In FIG. 6A, reference symbol 1 denotes a sound field space, 2 denotes an audience, 3 denotes a recording and reproducing apparatus main body. As shown in FIG. 6B, the recording and reproducing apparatus main body 3 has a television receiver (TV) 17 projecting a video signal onto a CRT 12, a DVD recording and reproducing section 10 recording and reproducing a recording medium such as a DVD, a surround decoder 14 obtaining a surround sound field signal, a power amplifier 15 amplifying a signal outputted to each speaker for 5-1 channel Dolby sound, a controller 13 controlling the DVD recording and reproducing section 10 and the surround decoder 14, and an MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) decoder 11 compressing a video signal from the DVD 10 and outputting the compressed video signal to the CRT 12. The recording and reproducing apparatus main body 3 outputs a surround phonic sound signal to each of the surround system speakers through an output terminal 18.
Reference symbol 4 denotes a speaker box containing a front left speaker (to be referred to as “FLS” hereinafter), 5 denotes a speaker box containing a front right speaker (to be referred to as “FRS” hereinafter), 6 denotes a center speaker (to be referred to as “CS” hereinafter), 7 denotes a woofer speaker without directivity, 8 denotes a speaker box containing a rear left speaker (to be referred to as “RLS” hereinafter), and 9 denotes a speaker box containing a rear right speaker (to be referred to as “RRS” hereinafter). The audience 2 is located to face the FLS, FRS and CS with the RLS and RRS arranged on rear left and right sides of the audience 2 and the WS arranged diagonally in the front left direction of the audience 2 so that the audience 2 can enjoy surround phonic sound.
As stated above, at least five speakers FLS, FRS, CS, RLS and RRS as well the WS are required to listen to surround phonic sound from the surround system speakers, and cables 16 connecting a main amplifier, a multichannel amplifier and the respective speaker with one another are scattered unseemly.
In addition, once a DVD player or the like is contained in a rack provided under the television receiver constituting the electronic equipment main body 3 and the DVD player or the like and the television receiver 17 are set up to be mutually connected, it is quite difficult and inconvenient to move them from a room in which the television receiver 17 and the DVD player or the like are set up, to another room. The same thing is true for a minicomponent or a high fidelity (hi-fi) audio system. That is, if the minicomponent or the hi-fi audio system is set on a desk or a dedicated rack, it is difficult to move it, making it impossible to effectively utilize the speakers.
The present invention has been made to solve the above-stated disadvantages. It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a multichannel acoustic signal reproducing apparatus which can be freely moved from one room to another room, which can connect an electronic equipment main body to a plurality of speakers by one cable or wirelessly and which facilitates enjoying surround phonic sound.